Winter has been slow to arrive this year here in Minnesota, but the snow is starting to fall and temperatures are dropping.

That means it’s time to get out the shovels, snow plows, and salt to clear the roads and sidewalks. But follow the advice our doctors have been giving for years: stick to a low-salt diet.

Rock salt, which contains chloride, is the most commonly used de-icer. But, much like table salt, rock salt’s benefits are peppered with danger. The safety benefits of using salt on icy roads come with environmental drawbacks like polluted waters and poisoned aquatic wildlife. In the Twin Cities metro area, 78% percent of the salt applied to roads stays within the region’s watershed. Eventually the chloride from salt finds its way into the groundwater.

Once in water, it becomes a permanent pollutant and continues to accumulate in the environment over time. In other words, it doesn’t go away. High levels of salt can be harmful to fish and other freshwater life and can affect groundwater and drinking water supplies, infrastructure, vehicles, plants, soil, pets, and wildlife.

“Too much chloride has serious water quality consequences.” said Brooke Asleson, chloride project manager at the MPCA. “Less is more when it comes to applying deicing salt. It only takes one teaspoon of road salt to pollute five gallons of water.”

To address these issues, the MPCA partnered with local and state experts in the 7-county Twin Cities metro area to create a plan for effectively managing salt use to protect our water resources. The goal of this plan is to provide strategies to help local partners reduce salt use while providing safe conditions for the public.

Improving practices for de-icing roads, parking lots and sidewalks will not only benefit water quality, but also lead to long-term cost-savings as a result of purchasing less salt and reduced impacts on vegetation and corrosion of infrastructure and vehicles.

A key challenge in reducing salt usage is balancing the need for public safety with the growing expectation for clear, dry roads, parking lots, and sidewalks throughout the winter. Notable efforts to improve winter maintenance and reducing salt usage while maintaining public safety have already been made by a number of winter maintenance organizations. The intent of the plan is to build on those efforts and to assist agencies, local governments and other stakeholders to determine salt reduction strategies to restore and protect Minnesota’s water resources.

How you can help.....

• Currently, there are no satisfactory alternatives to salt that are environmentally safe, effective, and inexpensive. However, here a few simple steps you can take to protect our lakes and streams.
  
• Support smart salting. Support local and state winter maintenance crews in their efforts to reduce salt use.
  
• Shovel first. The more snow and ice you remove, the less salt you will have to use and the more effective it can be. After the ice has been broken up, you can decide whether deicer is even necessary to maintain traction.
  
• Apply salt before the storm. Salting before can prevent snow and ice from building up on roads, therefore reducing overall salt use.
  
• Slow down. Drive for winter conditions, and be courteous to slow-moving plows. The slower they drive, the more salt will stay on the road where it’s needed.
  
• More salt does not mean more melting. Use less than four pounds of salt per 1,000 square feet (an average parking space is about 150 square feet). One pound of salt is approximately a heaping 12-ounce coffee mug. And be patient: salt takes time to work. Applying more will lead to unnecessary contamination.
  
• 15º is too cold for most salt to work. Most salts stop working at this temperature. In frigid conditions, use sand for traction.
  
• Sweep up extra salt. If salt or sand is visible on dry pavement, it is no longer doing any work and will be washed away. The excess can be swept up and reused for the next snow or disposed of in the trash.
  

For more on what you can do to reduce chloride in our waters, or to read more about MPCA’s role on this issue, visit the agency’s Twin Cities Metro Area Chloride Project webpage.